TANJUNG MALIM: The accommodation dormitories at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will be renovated to accommodate more students, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

At the National Book Award launch on Thursday (Dec 21), the Prime Minister said the renovation of the university's student accommodations must start immediately.

“It was reported that UPSI has the (lowest) student accommodation (capacity), therefore I have instructed the Finance Ministry and UPSI vice-chancellor to urgently start the development here.

“The proposal must be approved before the year ends so that construction can start,” he said.

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“The first phase (of the development) would include refurbishing the existing rooms so more students can stay while the new blocks are being built,” added Anwar, who is also Finance Minister.

In a Temu Anwar session at UPSI at the same event, Anwar said he has allocated RM25mil for renovation and refurbishment works to increase the capacity of UPSI's current 18 college blocks.

“The student quarters can only accomodate 36% or 7,804 out of the more than 21,000 students here.

“This is the lowest accommodation rate by a public university in the nation. Other public institutions have a 60% accommodation rate,” he said.